The Phenylethylamine Reaction
by Keiko Noriko
Summary: Set just after "The Barbarian Sublimation". Probably the first Penny/Sheldon fanfic. Penny is trying to change, but not all of these changes will be aproved, and some, she didn't expect.
1. Chapter 1

The first thing that needed desperately to be done was taking a very good shower. She had absolutely no idea of how she had let herself be drawn to this point, but it had to end now, as soon as she leveled up again. No, now!

She stood up and started to walk to the bathroom, not even turning off her laptop properly, because she knew it would undoubtedly lead her to check how the game was going on - and once there, there was no way out.

She closed the bathroom door behind her and turned the knob on the bathtub faucet. She dropped her clothes on the floor as she was taking them off, piece by piece, not worrying about the fact that she couldn't remember the last time she had cleaned that floor. But that was okay, considering she probably wouldn't use those clothes again any time soon.

She noticed her face was unrecognizable when she saw herself in the mirror. Honestly, if she saw someone looking like she was on the street, that person would probably also be asking for some change or heading to a rehab clinic. She felt sorry for herself; she didn't look that bad, not even when Kurt had dumped her. She entered in the water before she could start to cry again.

Stupid movie producers; stupid Cheesecake Factory; stupid on-line multiplayer games; stupid Sheldon for introducing her to them. No, it wasn't really his fault and she knew it, although he did deserve part of the guilt. She shoved those ideas off of her mind and began to wet her hair.

She missed this sensation of cleanness, the soap on her skin. She remembered taking a shower at some point during her addiction, maybe…

When the water was cold and she had recovered enough energy to stand up, she left the bathtub, put on her pajamas and dried her hair, thinking about what she was going to do in the next day.

"Good morning, guys," she said when she met Leonard and Sheldon in the hallway the next day.

"Goodbye," Sheldon replied before running back to the apartment, afraid that she would ask him something about the game. He definitely hadn't noticed the new her she had become over night.

"Don't worry about him, he's having a tough day today," Leonard replied to her, playing with his keys uncomfortably, when he saw her blank stare at the two guys' door.

"Okay," she shook her shoulders; she'd have to deal with Sheldon later. Right now her priority was celebrate having her life back. "See you later," she smiled, passing by Leonard and waving. Yes, she was having a great day, and nothing could spoil it for her.

"S-see you," Leonard stuttered in confusion.

She was a new woman, a new, beautiful, smart, confident woman, not even the rain outside would bother her - she loved the fresh air, after all. She was even starting to reconsider the community college. There was nothing she couldn't do, except, maybe, geometry.

Leonard picked up his phone, as it was beeping to announce he had received a message. He rolled his eyes when he saw the name Sheldon on the screen, but read it anyway.

"Is she gone?" the text asked.

"Yes, Sheldon, now, let's go, we're late already," Leonard responded through the door.

Sheldon opened the door, with his usual bad mood face.

"Allow me to observe that the only reason we're late is because you had to spent thirty minutes in the bathroom for unknown reasons, considering that your hair looks just as bad as it was when you woke up this morning," he said, locking the door behind them and starting to walk down the stairs.

"Well, thank you, Sheldon," Leonard answered. He wondered if his friend was really that innocent or he only liked to tease – knowing Sheldon as he did, the second hypothesis was very unlikely.

"Hey, I think I'm really starting to get the hand of sarcasm," Sheldon commented, with a little smile in pride of himself.

x

Penny had it all figured out. There was an audition for a movie this morning and she was going to get it; honestly, she couldn't picture a better person for this role, it was definitely written for her – for the new her, of course.

She entered the building and a woman told her to pick a number and enter the waiting room, she looked at her number, 15, she smiled, it shouldn't take that long, especially judging by the quantity of people there. She sat on one of the couches, on the side of a brunette girl reading a book.

"Can you believe twenty minutes have passed, I'm sitting here and nobody has appeared to call any of us yet?" The brunette girl commented to Penny, closing her book, and looking extremely impatient.

"Really? God, I wish I had brought my iPod, then, right?" Penny responded. This would probably freak out the old Penny. Luckily for her, this was a new Penny; the Penny that would get this part, so why worry?

The brunette girl didn't seem to find that especially fun, as she frowned and drove her eyes back into her book. Penny took a magazine from the pile on the table and waited to be called.

x

"Sheldon, do you think Penny might have gotten some sexual intercourse last night?" Leonard asked in the cafeteria that same day during their lunch break.

"Let's see, I don't know why this would be a matter of my interest, so I don't care," Sheldon replied, taking his tray and going to the table where Rajesh and Howard were sitting and eating already. "As long as she stops interrupting my REM cycles, I'm good. It's simply not healthy for any person to be awake in the middle of the night –"

"Dumbass, nobody cares," Leslie cut him off sitting at the table with the four of them. "So, Hello Kitty is finally doing someone? Good for her."

"We don't know, and I don't think we should be discussing her sex life here in the middle of the cafeteria and without her present to defend herself," Leonard replied to Leslie. He deeply wished Penny hadn't had sex the night before, increasing his chances of… getting their relationship back, if he could call their one date a relationship.

"I could talk about it," Howard commented, shaking his shoulders before noticing Leonard's killing look and facing his food again.

"Well, you must be relieved that you can now focus on your unfounded theories without having Polly Pocket asking to play with you all the time," Leslie teased Sheldon with a grin. It just felt so good knowing she would always beat him in these oral fights.

x

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Penny said running to the Cheesecake Factory and stopping just in time to drop to her knees in front of her boss.

The audition actually had taken up a lot more time than she was expecting, and she didn't get the part apparently, since the producers told her so. This only brought her self-esteem back to the bottom, but instead of going back to Age of Conan, she decided to take a more optimistic attitude, and that was probably why her boss was looking at her stunned.

"You miss three days of work, and come today exceptionally late, I hope you have a great excuse for that, and what the hell happened to your hair?" he replied, still not taking his eyes off of her hair.

She was frustrated. She needed to do something, so she went to a hair saloon – the first hair saloon she saw and cut it to her chin and had some black highlights added. She didn't think it looked bad at first, but it was the fourth time someone looked at her like she was dressed for Halloween already, and she was starting to have second thoughts about it.

"No, I don't. But I can start working on Mondays, and take extra shifts and help cleaning after we're closed, I promise," she begged. She would stay on her knees if she had too; she didn't know what she would do if she, after all that had happened that day, lost her job too.

He looked at her for a while, aware that the silence was killing her and kind of enjoying every second of it.

"Okay," he finally said, shaking his shoulders and leaving her there alone.

By the end of the day she was completely exhausted and not as happy as she had planned when she woke up that morning. She got to her building and moaned remembering she still had to walk up the stairs because the elevator, let's face it, would never be fixed.

"Heeey, sweetie, what are you doing here outside so late?" she asked in a monotone. She didn't even know why she had greeted him in the first place; she was way too tired to try to handle Sheldon.

"I had to stay at work longer, because I couldn't finish my job for this week," he replied, almost sounding like a normal person, she noticed, surprised. Only if she knew he wasn't blaming her for that, but she allowed him to. After all, he had the right this time.

"Oh, I'm really sorry about that," she said, honestly. Her depression wasn't supposed to affect anyone's life except her own. "If it makes you feel better, I discounted my frustration by trying to look like a mushroom," she pointed to her hair. She knew she would regret it later, whatever he had to say about her new hairstyle hardly would cheer her up.

He frowned, oblivious as usual to pretty much anything that would come out of Penny's mouth. "I don't get it," he said.

"C'mon, look at what I did to my hair, can you really say it looks any good?" she insisted. She knew he had no people skills, but there was no way he couldn't see she had ruined her hair.

"Do you want an honest response?" he asked.

She thought about that for a second. She thought about what he could say. She thought about her crappy day. She really didn't need to feel any worse. "No," she replied, looking for a compliment – even a fake one – for the first time of the day.

"Then, no," he answered, and immediately after that entering his apartment.

She smiled and played with her key in her hand for a while before entering her own apartment. Her life wasn't that awful after all.

* * *

**Hope you all enjoyed it. Thanks Willow for the beta!**


	2. Chapter 2

The morning was rising and shining when Sheldon Cooper woke up the next day as he felt he was in an especially good mood. Not that he had a reason for that - as a matter of fact, all odds were in favor of the grumpiness that had taken over him last week, caused by Penny breaking into his bedroom in the middle of the night, every night.

Although she didn't do it the night before, it would take some time for him to get back to his old sleeping routines and catch up with his work.

He stood up and put on his robe, which matched his pajamas, and started his morning before his roommate was up.

"Good morning, Leonard," he greeted his friend as he entered the living room, where he was sitting on his spot and eating low-fiber cereal.

"Good morning… Sheldon?" Leonard replied, noticing his friend's tone of voice and ready to ask what had happened and remembering just in time that this was officially his first night without Penny interrupting his REM cycles. Sheldon could be so predictable.

"Of course it's me, who else could it possibly be?" he frowned. They both shared a confused look with each other before he continued "Anyway, I'll probably be held up at work again, so don't start having dinner without me. Don't forget to tell Penny that, too." He took a spoon of the cereal.

"What?" Leonard exclaimed. He knew Sheldon could ask for something weird like that, but he hoped it was just a weird dream.

"Fine, I'll talk to her," he rolled his eyes impatiently, then stood up and left his now empty cereal bowl on the sink to be washed.

Leonard thought about arguing that the real problem was in the fact that they had no idea when Sheldon would arrive home and he could be more considerate with his friends. But a speech like that would be worthless, and besides, Sheldon was already gone, as he had just noticed. He let out a sigh of conformity.

x

Penny was one of the few people in the world who truly loved Mondays, and that was probably because she was one of the few people in the world who didn't have to work on that day.

It was her day to sleep in, clean up the house and watch old TV re-runs. It was simple; not very ambitious, but she liked it. And if her alarm clock hadn't rang that morning, reminding her that now she was just an ordinary Monday-worker girl, she'd still be one of the few people in the world who truly loved this day.

Technically, her mornings wouldn't change very much, but she knew she wouldn't finish in time if she woke up the same time she usually did. She had made a good decision for another reason, as she found out a few minutes later, with Sheldon knocking repeatedly on her door to tell her about their dinner schedule, and at that time of the morning!

As she suspected, when everything was done, it was almost time to go to work, so she took a shower, put on her uniform and grabbed a snack for lunch to eat in the car while driving to the Cheesecake Factory.

She greeted some of the waitresses there who recognized her right away when she entered the restaurant, before taking a notepad from the counter to take people's orders.

"Penelope?" a male voice called on her back, a few minutes later, making her blood freeze. She knew exactly who it was; she nervously bit her lower lip before turning to him. "What are you doing here?" the male voice continued - it was her boss.

"I work here," she replied, raising her eyebrows. "And part of the deal to keep it this way was me taking a Monday shift, remember?" she added, sensing that her boss wasn't really happy about her sarcastic commentary, and feeling a little pathetic to have to remind him of her screw up.

"You took that seriously?" he asked in a mockery tone of voice, making she feel a little offended. "Please! I wouldn't fire you; you are one of the few people here who doesn't bother me about getting a raise," he chuckled with a hand running his tummy, looking very cliché. "We're full for today, so why don't you just go back home and do whatever is that you do on Mondays?" he finished, shaking his hand; a movement that reminded her of someone trying to get rid of a stinky dog.

She was relieved, not only because she was free of her punishment so easily, but mostly because of what her boss had just said.

She didn't keep her job because she was good at it, or because she had put so much effort into keeping it, or because he had realized she was really sorry about screwing up, but, as a matter of fact, it was only because she wasn't an extra weight for her boss to worry about.

And if she wasn't such a coward and had any other job she could rely on, she would've quit her job right in that moment. Instead of that, she ended up going back home and stopping in a grocery store to buy ice cream.

Most definitely, the highlights of her day would be having dinner with the boys. She couldn't go wrong with them; and even this didn't start very well.

"Hi, guys, I felt the urge to have some food and decided to join you already," she started, turning to close the door. It was a movement that lasted two seconds, but was enough to confuse all the nerds there - it was the first time the nerds were seeing her with her new haircut.

"Cousin Lucile?" Leonard asked, and even when she looked at him, he was still frowning. "Penny!" he shouted. "Of course it's you. I… I knew it," he stuttered. "It's just that Cousin Lucile is this punk girl with crazy hair and…"

Penny crossed her arms and raised her eyebrows as he tried to explain himself. She wasn't honestly mad at him; she just thought it was funny to see him all nervous.

"It looks great! Where did you get it cut at?" he finally asked, to give his sentence a closure.

"That's okay, sweetie." she said, smiling sympathetically at him before going to take a spot on the couch. "Hi, Raj, how are you?" she asked the man on the armchair that followed her with his eyes and then looked down when she looked at him to avoid eye contact. It was somehow a little comforting to know she was still too attractive for him to talk to her.

"If you allow me to say, mademoiselle…," Howard started on her right, getting closer and smirking.

"I don't," she cut him off, a game that they were both very used to play.

Sheldon came up right after that with the food. He looked at Penny with a blank expression, and he didn't even have to do anything else for her to realize she was in his spot. She moved to the next one, but not without letting out a tired sigh.

He sat down, satisfied and started to distribute the food as the others claimed their own packages from the bag.

They didn't have to do that. Sheldon had memorized all the orders since the day Penny started to join their dinners and Howard, Rajesh and Leonard took the opportunity to make changes in what they wanted to eat, trying not to look like freaks that always had to eat the exact same thing.

Surprisingly for them, Penny wasn't used to changing her menu very often either, which made them feel a lot more comfortable, except for Sheldon, who apparently didn't care about it.

Penny knew about it, once she caught him calling the restaurant to order before asking anyone of the group what they wanted, and although she wouldn't admit it out loud, she liked the fact that he could remember all of their foods likes and dislikes.

She immediately faced her food in her lap when she realized she was still looking at Sheldon and his eyes had met hers, she felt embarrassed by this, for reasons she couldn't explain even if she wanted to. Luckily, nobody else noticed her burning cheeks.

x

The weekend had arrived, and for Penny this was a synonym to go to movies and play auditions and hope to receive a call back, what since she moved to Los Angeles only happened once. And that was only because the original choice of the musical couldn't make it, what didn't count for her as getting a part.

But this time it was different. This Sunday, the producers of a play she auditioned on Friday had called her and announced her she'd star as a supporting character in their next play. It wasn't much, she knew, only enough to make sure she doesn't give up on the acting career, at least for now.

As soon as she hung up the phone, she left her place, smiling from ear to ear and not even trying to hide it, to go buy a bottle of wine and celebrate it as she crossed with Sheldon in the hall getting his mail.

"Oh, good you're here" she said excitedly, when she saw Sheldon and started to walk towards him. He looked around to make sure it was really with him she was talking to. "Guess what, I'm going to be on a play!" she opened with a bigger smile.

"Congratulations, I suppose," he replied moving his eyes away from the letters for a while and then going back to reading the names in them.

"Yes, that's the word. Thanks." she ignored his indifference "I'm going to celebrate it tonight in my apartment, at 8, okay?" she continued, and as he didn't say anything else she decided it was time to leave already. "Okay. You inform the guys; bye Sheldon".

"Penny?" he called her as she touched the building doorknob, making she turn to him again "Why are you telling me this?" he asked curiously.

She frowned, not entirely understanding the point of the question "Well, you know… we're friends, and you heard me whining about not getting a part on anything so, yeah, that," she tried to explain herself, in what could be considered a very good impression of their friend, Leonard. "Bye Sheldon," she repeated, before finally getting out of there.

"Huh, interesting," Sheldon muttered to himself as he watched her leaving; he then shrugged his shoulders in indifference and started to walk upstairs to his apartment.

* * *

**Thanks Willow for the beta!**


	3. Chapter 3

It was her very first day rehearsing for the play. She had received the script a few days earlier in her mail and she couldn't be more excited about it – she even tried to practice with the boys one day, which turned out to be not one of her most brilliant ideas.

Howard could only think about practicing the inexistent kiss scene, in an extremely inconvenient way. Raj would shrug and avoid her eye contact anytime he or she had a line to say; and Sheldon, when not criticizing her performance, was complaining about missing Halo Night.

Leonard, on the other hand, did his best to be helpful, she had to admit it. But even he at one point couldn't stand Sheldon's moans anymore and they all went to play Halo, leaving Penny alone in her apartment with a script yet to be memorized.

The official rehearsal had gone pretty good, in her inexperienced evaluation. There was a small introduction for all the cast meet each other, followed up by some weird body and facial exercises that only she and another actor found amusing, then there was the rehearsal itself and they were all dismissed.

Penny reached for her backpack and went to the lady's room to put on her uniform – she still had to take a shift at the Cheesecake Factory. When she got back from the stall, her eyes met the leading actress's through the mirror. Penny smiled politely, the other girl replied to it, a little more enthusiastically than it was expected.

"Hi! Elizabeth, right? You're my friend!" the girl exclaimed happily, turning to look at Penny directly.

Penny frowned, confused.

"I mean on the play," the girl explained herself immediately. "You're not my friend, I know that, please…" she rolled her eyes to show how absurd the idea was. Penny still looked confused. "Not that I don't want to be your friend, it's just that I don't know you yet. Or ever!" she kept talking. Penny opened her mouth to try to reply her, but she was too slow. "Hey, if we become friends can I call you Lizzy?" the girl finally finished her sentence.

"Sure," she shrugged. "but people will get confused, considering that my name's Penny"

The actress tried to process the information for a while.

"Oh, that's right! You're the newbie, not the bulimic," she nodded, proud to remember that.

Penny meant to ask her how she knew she was a newbie, but was interrupted by her own cell phone ringing. She made a sign with her hand to the girl to wait and answered it without paying attention in the name on the screen.

"You have to come pick me up," a very familiar voice started, so familiar that she didn't even needed a confirmation.

"Why, where are you?" she asked.

On the other side of the line, there was Sheldon, on the sidewalk of what could be any street in the State of California. He was holding his phone with both hands, in an attempt to hide it from potential thieves.

"I don't know. I was asked to de-bus because making a seat belt with a bungee cord started to scare the other passengers," he whispered, he couldn't afford to take the risk of letting anyone know he was lost – someone could try to take an advantage of that.

"Why did you try to make a seat belt with a bungee cord?" Penny raised her eyebrows. The actress in front of her had started considering leaving; she had to change her mind when she heard that.

Penny tried her best to think of a scenario where that could be considered a plausible situation – not even a MacGyver episode did the trick.

He rolled his eyes as once again he would have to explain something obvious for her.

"First, I didn't try, I succeeded. Second, let's suppose the bus is traveling by the speed of 50 miles an hour when an unexpected event happens on the road, forcing the bus driver to press the breaks abruptly. What do you think will avoid that inertia makes me hit something solid and seriously injury myself?" he asked.

"I don't know, Sheldon, the fat guy in front of you?" Penny mocked, making the actress giggle – she pretended to be laughing at something on the bathroom's door, though.

He gave her the stink eye.

"You're giving me the stink eye, aren't you?" she smiled triumphantly.

"So, are you coming to pick me up?" he asked.

"Oh, I'm sorry sweetie, but I can't. I'm already late for my work, can't you just take a cab?" she replied apologetically.

"No, I don't trust cab drivers, they're rather irresponsible." Sheldon shook his head emphatically, even though he knew she couldn't see him doing that.

"Did you keep your bungee cord?" Penny questioned.

"Yes…" he responded, a little confused.

"Then, you'll be just fine," she completed before hanging up.

The actress looked at Penny with curiosity and a smile playing on her lips. She explained her relationship with Sheldon and why it wasn't so serious that she didn't help him, the other girl shook her head.

"Boy, this is really amazing," she said sarcastically. "But I should be going now," she opened the restroom's door. "So, I guess I'll see you around," she waved enthusiastically and left.

Penny nodded unconsciously; she looked the actress go, wondering what she had got in to when accepted going out with that girl and how the rehearsals would go from now on. Then, she remembered she was late to work and ran to her car.

x

Leonard bent over the coffee table, starting to get nervous about the three other men watching his every movement with a blank expression; he turned back to the piece of paper in front of him and wrote something before finally dropping the pen and raising his hands. Wollowitz, on his side, pressed the chronometer, there was a moment of silence, to make it more dramatic.

"2 minutes and 12 seconds… exactly," he announced. Leonard and Rajesh moaned as Sheldon and Howard celebrated it.

"That's it, I give up, Sheldon and Howard will always be the champions of Great Master Sudoko," Leonard complained, crossing his arms "and you and I will always be 3rd and 4th," he pointed to Rajesh, who looked as disappointed as him.

"Maybe you two should get a life!" Raj commented, moping to the two winners now with a pathetic victorious smile on their lips.

"Yeah, right," Howard scoffed.

"Well, that was nice…" Sheldon said. "Now we only have to wait for 34 minutes," he looked at the hour on the laptop.

Sheldon was referring to the time Penny said she would arrive with their pizza.

It had been a long time since her last dinner with them since the rehearsals and the Cheesecake Factory were taking most of her time, so she decided to take her day off at the restaurant to catch up with them.

She only realized how much she was missing them when Sheldon called her to let her know how her abstinence was messing their regular orders; for some reason, she considered that oddly sweet.

"Hey, guys, food is here," Penny greeted happily.

Leonard immediately stood up to help her carrying the pizzas to the counter and Sheldon opened his mouth to start an interrogation and make sure everything was the way he wanted it to be.

"Yes, yes, yes, no, no, because it's not my problem," she said before he could start, remembering the last time she gently offered to pick up the food for them.

When Leonard finally asked Penny how things were going on the play, she tried not to get too excited.

It was even better than she had imagined; even Amanda, the actress she met on the first day had already established a pattern that Penny was able to follow, she explained she couldn't stop talking when she got nervous and that she always got nervous when she met new people. Not to mention that the guy who had laughed at the facial exercises with her was a great company during the breaks.

She only said it was fine and that she liked people there. Then, for some reason, the subject immediately changedto Halloween and the guys asking her if she would do it that year, which she confirmed, as she planned these parties long before she moved just across the hall. Besides, it was a great opportunity to get closer to Steven – the laughter guy.

"I'm Flash!" the three of them said at the same time, while Raj nodded to show he wanted to be Flash as well.

"You know guys, there's like half month before it, you don't have to decide now," Penny said calmly.

"Why do _you_ want to be Flash? You're much better as Joker," Leonard replied to Sheldon, not even hearing what she had just said, none of them did, actually.

"Oh, no, we're going to have to put Flash on veto again, aren't we?" Koothrappali moaned at one point of the discussion, making them all notice Penny was already gone and so was her part of the pizza.

She was there through most part of their discussion, talking about her play and getting amused by their full attention on their arguing, then checking her e-mails and letting some cheese fall on the keyboard and nobody noticing it, cleaning the keyboard, then saying goodnight to all of them and leaving, which only Rajesh really noticed, relieved that he was finally able to talk again.

x

Later that night, there were three knocks on her door followed up by her name being repeated three times.

"Hey, Sheldon, what's up?" she asked as she opened the door. She was already in her nightgown and her hair was tied, which meant she was about to put on her facial night creams.

For a fraction of a second his eyes went through her as a whole; he hoped she didn't notice it and mostly, he hoped it was just a reaction to the extra amount of scrambled eggs he had that morning.

"You forgot your share on the olives," he replied, giving her a small pot with four black olives – the exact quantity she used to eat anytime she had pizza with them. She didn't get any that night, when picking her slices of pizza, and now there he was, giving them back to her.

"Oh, thanks Sheldon," she said, successfully hiding part of her real appreciation for the gesture. "Hey, did you guys decided who's going to be the Flash?" she asked before he could go back to his apartment.

"We put it on veto," he informed, a little bitterly.

She nodded in understanding. She wished she had something planned to say next, but nothing came to mind.

"Well, goodnight, Penny," he said, and shyly waved for her when she replied him.

He closed the door of his apartment and stared at the hand he had just used to wave, completely confused.

She closed the door of her apartment and stared at the pot of olives deciding it would be better if she just pretended she was oblivious to her feelings. She said a dirt word and ate one of the olives.

"Sheldon? Are you okay?" Leonard asked, coming from his bedroom and noticing his friend's weird expression.

"I don't understand the question. Goodnight, Leonard," Sheldon said, going to his own bedroom.

Leonard frowned confused, before shaking his head and comforting himself with the fact that he would never understand what was going on in Sheldon's mind.

* * *

**Thanks deludedvision for the beta!  
**


	4. Chapter 4

Before leaving her home, Penny decided to throw the script of the play inside her bag and practice it during the breaks in the restaurant.

The rehearsals were starting to get frustrating, every day the director, the producers and the writers struggled about something and changed a scene. Most of the times, the one Penny had just got the hang to play.

At first it was somehow exciting and amusing, she loved their efforts and enthusiasm to increase the play, but now she was about to smash the face of the next actor who gave a suggestion for an act. She was very relieved she had this day off to clear up her mind.

She grabbed her keys and went to the hallway.

"Hey guys," she greeted happily to Sheldon and Leonard who were arriving to their apartment. She discreetly wiped her suddenly incredibly sweaty hands on her jeans; she preferred not to analyze the meaning of this.

Leonard greeted her back, while Sheldon looked away uncomfortable. Penny and Leonard gazed upon each other puzzled and shrugged at the same time.

"Did the body-transfer machine he and Raj were building finally work?" Penny asked playfully, making Leonard chuckle.

"Excuse me, I don't believe it's polite to make fun of other people's inabilities, especially when they're not around to defend themselves," Sheldon said sounding slightly offended. "Although now it occurs to me he wouldn't be able to defend himself anyway. And don't get me started on the absurd of a body-transfer machine."

"There you go!" Penny commented after a few seconds of awkward silence.

She laughed nervously and decided it was time to go. Besides, and mainly, she feared that if she stood there much longer she would show how upset she was by Sheldon's attitude.

The last time they had seen each other was the night before, with him giving her olives, and she honestly didn't know what she could possibly had done wrong in this meantime. She tried to comfort herself with the thought that it wasn't personal.

"Seriously, what's going on between you two?" Leonard asked to Sheldon when he was sure Penny wasn't close enough to hear it.

It had to be something personal with Penny considering that a few minutes earlier they were discussing the inaccuracies of the latest X files movie, nothing out of the ordinary.

"I think we're both aware of my incapacity of keeping secrets," Sheldon observed, opening and entering the apartment.

"Alright, good point," Leonard admitted, entering just after his friend and watching him going to his bedroom. "You didn't answer my question, though," he muttered, lying on the couch and turning on the TV to relax.

x

"Penny, are you okay?" a waitress whispered in her back, waking her up from her trance.

A few minutes earlier she had decided she wouldn't think of Sheldon anymore and give all her attention to her work, but looks like she was thinking too much about not thinking about it.

They have had their misunderstandings before, 'just because now her heart started to pound anytime she was around him that didn't change anything, right?' Wrong. Apparently, it changed it all.

She looked down to see what she was doing - serving the costumers of a table with used drinks and dirty plates. She apologized effusively to them while the other waitress helped her fixing the mess.

Penny moved to the bar to get some rest, she sat down and watched Tom, the bartender, mix up drinks. He finished one and was about to hand it to a waiter when Penny grabbed it from him and turned it all in one sip.

"I don't think we're supposed to drink during work," Tom said, looking at her a little astonished.

"Yeah, well, I'm not doing the work part right anyway," she shook her shoulders, giving the glass back to him for a refill.

"Lay it on me," Tom replied with a sympathetic smile.

She turned to him. He was really tiny and thin and you could see he suffered a lot with zits in his teens; he was in no way the type of guy Penny would normally talk to. He's been working on the restaurant since she could remember and as in matter of fact, until that moment they never had a real conversation.

It wasn't for lack of him trying, though. Penny remembered more than one occasion he asking her how she was doing, what she would do on the weekend, what she thought about the weather, etc. He was the type of person who always tried to make the most people they could to like them. And he tried really hard.

He was a very sweet guy and she wondered why she hadn't noticed it until then. She thanked him for offering his shoulder and went back to work. Besides feeling a little dizzy, she was already a lot better.

Of course, when she stated this she had forgotten completely this was one of the days Leonard, Rajesh, Howard and… Sheldon went there to have dinner.

When she saw Leonard entering the Cheesecake Factory she thought for one second that maybe Sheldon wouldn't join them this time. She was being silly. Whatever it was that Penny did to him it wasn't important enough to interfere in his dinner's schedules.

She reluctantly went to their table and confirmed their orders, she glanced at Sheldon slightly hopeful, but he didn't move his eyes from the menu, as he, of all people in the world, would order something different from the usual.

He peeked at her to confirm she was gone already and closed his menu, re-starting their discussion about the interruption of the work with LHC like what had just happened was absolutely normal.

At this point, his friends had already learned not to ask anything when it came to the Sheldon and Penny friendship.

Something that Sheldon learned to be grateful for. He hated the idea that a theoretical physicist with two PhDs, a Masters and an IQ that couldn't be measured by conventional methods like him wasn't able to explain accurately the current past events.

It wasn't that he didn't know the chemical and biological process, but he always considered himself above all of these futile needs the lesser minds gave so much attention to.

According to his research this insanity would pass eventually, there was no need to be alarmed and turn it into a bigger deal than it really was.

One thing not many people knew about Howard was that he's a great observer of the female behavior. This, at first, was a technique he improved only for his own gain - to try to learn if a woman was interested in him or not. It never worked with him, but he seemed to always get it right when it was about the others around him. For once, he decided to do something about it for a friend.

They had almost finished their dinner when he left the table and went after Penny.

"Hello, fair Penny," Howard said with a flirty smile.

"For the last time, Howard, yes, a waitress can sue you for sexual harassment just because you grabbed her butt," Penny rolled her eyes impatiently.

"Oh, Penny, you have so much to learn about me yet…" he shook his head. "But thanks for the heads-up. Anyway, I'm not here to talk about me," he looked at her suggestively. She crossed her arms and waited for him to continue "I understand you've developed a little crush on my fellow geek friend, Sheldon, am I right?"

Penny let her jaw drop. Howard chuckled briefly, feeling proud of himself. She tried to convert the situation, laughing and shaking her head in denial.

"I don't blame you, though; since Beauty and the Geek aired we started to look a lot more interesting in the lady's eyes. I'd give anything to find a girl hooked on this show," he continued, thinking this would make her feel better about herself.

"You're kidding, right?" she asked.

"Yeah, I am, any girl works for me," he agreed. "Well, when you decide to come out, you know you can count on Howie here," he pointed to himself. "Now, if you excuse me, future Mrs. Wolowitz over there is waiting to know her prince charming has arrived." He left her with a somewhat superior air and went after a waitress resting on the other side of the room.

'He had to be bluffing; there was no way he could tell it - she had only figured it out in the night before and she wasn't even sure about it yet. This wasn't a precise science, there were too many unknowns…great, now she was starting to think like Sheldon.

'But what if he was serious and he really wanted to help her?' She shoved the idea off; nerds were good with robots, not humans.

She heard the waitress shouting and Howard passed running by her, followed up by a security guard. Howard and his friends were forced to leave the restaurant.

She laughed at herself for considering even for a moment what he had said.

x

One thing Penny still liked about the rehearsals was the spare time she had to chat with Steven and Amanda. It was the one time of the day she wasn't think of work or the other problems of her life. She usually only heard them both discussing about cult movies and didn't say a thing - she did a mental memo once to rent one of these movies eventually, maybe Sheldon would watch it with her, it seemed the type of thing he was into.

Then, always at one point of the discussion, Steven and Amanda remembered Penny was still with them and asked her how she was going with her geek friends.

She loved to talk about them and was excited to tell how they were already planning the costumes for her Halloween party - it was also the perfect moment to invite them both, who agreed immediately, dying to know what was the big deal with them.

She kept to herself her misunderstanding with Sheldon. It wasn't solved yet as he moved to the University the next day they went to her restaurant. Leonard explained it was because of his new schedules and that Sheldon couldn't find a ride but she couldn't help thinking she was at least partially to blame.

The director dismissed everyone and Penny went happily to her car.

x

She had acquired a new habit ever since Sheldon started living in the University.

She carefully unlocked the door and looked around before pulling it, it was oddly good the feeling of feeling like a criminal. She entered the room and turned to it. She jumped scared - she wondered if this is how a heart attack felt like.

"Sheldon, what are you doing here?" Penny asked between gasps "weren't you living in the University?" her pulse was accelerated again, but it had nothing to do with the scare anymore.

"I was, until I recently discovered there was no need for it anymore. He finished his work two weeks ago and didn't tell me," he explained.

"Oh, yeah, he mentioned it last Wednesday, when I replaced you on Halo Night," she nodded absently, remembering the day.

"You knew about it too?" he looked at her and raised his eyebrows.

She smiled innocently. She knew it would drive him crazy. He couldn't blame her anyway - he was the one who was avoiding her before and everything.

She was so glad he wasn't mad at her anymore she wasn't questioning so much about what she had done right this time to fix it.

"Did you win at least?" he asked.

"Oh, sweetie," she rolled her eyes "I always win," she teased him.

She went to the table where the computer was, Sheldon watched her with a curious expression in his face.

"Penny, what are you doing here?" he asked, frowning.

"Not turning on the wi-fi connection, apparently," she responded, cursing Sheldon mentally for noticing what she was doing and changing her course to the fridge to grab a soda. She opened the can and took a sip.

"So, what's you big plan to surprise Leonard? Jump in front of him with a cape and a mask or something?" she inquired.

"Just sitting worked for you," he shrugged. Penny had to agree.

Leonard entered the apartment about half an hour later. He threw the key on the furniture and went to the fridge. Penny looked at Sheldon wondering what he'd do now that Leonard hadn't realized they were there; he made her a sign to wait.

Leonard closed the fridge and turned back to them. Penny grinned.

"Hey guys, what's going on?" he asked, unsure if he wanted to know the answer. His eyes went back and forth to them both suspiciously.

"We were playing Age of Conan!" Penny said defensively, showing her laptop to him. She couldn't tell if she was trying more to convince him or herself that nothing else was going on. "I wouldn't get the internet otherwise," she explained.

Leonard decided it was a good enough reason. It was Sheldon they were talking about, after all, and Penny, he was worrying his mind unnecessarily. Besides, he should be focusing on the fact that his roommate was misteriously back again.

Penny bit her lower lip, wanting to know what Sheldon was thinking about Leonard's worries.

x

"HOWARD, THERE'S SOMEONE AT THE DOOR!" Someone shouted from inside the house as Penny pressed the doorbell.

"SO THAT'S WHAT A DOORBELL RINGING INDICATES?! THANK YOU MOM!" A male voice shouted back.

There was silence for a few seconds, Penny thought she should leave; this was clearly not the best moment to go there, but when she was about to leave, she heard another screaming.

"CAN'T YOU OPEN THE DOOR? I'M PLAYING WITH MY COLORED BLOCKS!" The male voice continued.

"NO! I'M NOT DRESSED UP FOR GUESTS!" The first voice replied.

More silence, steps from inside the house and Howard opened the door. His eyes met Penny's, she blinked and shook her head, and unsure of what to do next, she hugged him. He padded her back.

"We can have rebound sex if you want," he offered.

Penny looked at him raising her eyebrows and walked back to her car. It wasn't worth it, not even for Sheldon.

* * *

**Hope it was worth the wait. I don't know how to write Howard's mom! I'm sorry, but I really suck at this. She had to appear, I tried to avoid this, but I guess you can't control the characters and the plot, right? Well, I'm replying the reviews everytime I update now, but I probably won't get your replies as I'm still having troubles with my account. I never thought I'd write such a big A/N... well, see you all in the next chapter (fingers crossed). And thanks deludedvision once again for her terrific beta job!**


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